Speaker for the Diodes

"American dudes are driven by a Wizard of Oz-like desire to
"curtain off" their genitals. They are impelled to gird up their
loins with yards of fabric, thereby protecting--symbolically and
literally--their reproductive equipment, while sinewy Spaniards,
hard-body Greeks, bronzed Aussies, diverse Latin Americans, and
pale squishy Brits take a reverse approach. These fellows prefer
to wear swimsuits that say, "In case you wondered, I am the proud
possessor of male genitalia, and in case you don't believe me,
here it is!"" -- Simon Doonan, in Why Are Guys Afraid to Wear
Speedos?

Short version: anyone available to help at my house in
Baltimore, mostly carrying medium-to-heavy things, tomorrow
("today" by the time many of you read this), Saturday, or
Sunday?

Checking in with an update on my house: progress continues;
waiting for estimate from roofer who came out Monday, still
looking for somebody to repair the brick back wall of the
basement. Clearing out the living room to have one big space to
unload the storage trailer into is still, I think, several days
with a helper or two, maybe a couple of days with more helpers.
(Keith, can you sanity-check my impression?) Going to be up there
tomorrow afternoon with Keith, and probably one day of the
weekend. If anyone is available to help out Saturday or Sunday,
I'll be there whichever day I have help. I also still need to put
jacks in the basement before stacking all my books in the living
room.

Doing every other day last week really cost me physically,
even letting others do most of the muscle-work. I can make
up,some of that with extra painkillers, but not enough to really
step up the pace myself.

There's still a bunch of things I need help with other than
carrying things up stairs, some more urgent than others, a few
that can be done anytime between now and when the weather gets
uncomfortably cold this fall/winter. And also some
need-skills-more-than-muscles things which aren't absolutely
needed to make the house livable but would make it much more
comfortable.

(I gotta figure out what I can still do enough of to pay back
or pay forward the help I've been getting and the help I'm asking
for.)

Anyone available to help out either Saturday or Sunday? (Or
tomorrow?)

"We'd call it murder if a kidnapping victim died of fright
during the job. Of course it's not legally the same thing, but a
woman dying of depression during an illegal detention should be
the same kind of crime. It's especially true given our long and
sordid history of overpolicing misdemeanors." -- Matt Taibbi,
2015-07-24

"Seriously, every sitcom trope is a cautionary tale.
If you find yourself doing something you would expect to see in a
cheap three-camera comedy, please, stop." -- Tailsteak,
author's comment on
Leftover Soup #342

"IMO cats are what women aspire to be: smart, graceful,
strong, independent, beautiful, etc. I tell all female friends
and family to run (don't walk) away from any man who hates
cats." -- Sheila N., 2011-02-21 [thanks to
starmalachite for
quoting this earlier]

"One reason the Internet fosters conspiracy theories is that its
system of branching, crossing tunnels is shaped like paranoid
easoning itself, and once inside the shadow maze you find
yourself tracking elusive glimmers of light that recede as fast
as you can follow them." -- Walter Kirn, in Blood Will Out.

"I don't know about you, but the idea that every single
person in America who has ever had an injection has been
protected because we harvest the blood of a forgettable sea
creature with a hidden chemical superpower makes me feel a little
bit crazy. This scenario is not even sci-fi, it's
postmodern technology." -- Alexis C. Madrigal, regarding
horseshoe crab blood,
2014-02-26

"I lived in Spain during a period of ETA violence. ETA was
to Spain as Sinn Fein to Northern Ireland and Great Britain. I
don't know how to describe the feeling of knowing a bomb went off
in a TWA office yesterday taking out also the cafe in which you'd
eaten lunch the day before that. Of having your flight delayed
because another airline office got blown up. Of never knowing
when you might end up dead due to another attack, yet you go on
living your life, for there is nothing else to do, aside from
trying to remain reasonably vigilant.

"I'm pretty
sure that's a feeling too many black people, and especially black
men, live with every day. I expect a good number of women,
regardless [of] skin tone know that feeling. As a white man, i've
never felt that feeling here in the US. But i see how others
would, and do, feel that here."

-- Seain Gutridge,
during a conversation about what makes some violence terrorism,
after the shootings in Chattanooga, July 2015 (non-public
comment)

"The story goes that there are so many Cypriots scattered
around the world, that if they all returned to Cyprus and stood
side by side, they would never fit on the island. One thing
Roussou's research has proved, is that there are indeed many
Greek Cypriots living abroad, with Britain housing the largest
communities at around 300,000 Greek Cypriots just in London."
-- Alexia Evripidou,
2015-01-18

[For scale, the population of Cyprus
was 1.14 million in 2013 according to World Bank]

"When pockets were first added to women's clothing in 1913,
a Paris reporter wrote, 'It's all over with men's superiority over
women.' Pockets are indeed indispensable, and they come in two
types: patch and set-in" -- Claire B. Shaeffer, Sew Any
Set-in Pocket(via Goodreads)

"The Defense Department's current regulations regarding
transgender service members are outdated and are causing
uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions. At
a time when our troops have learned from experience that the most
important qualification for service members should be whether
they're able and willing to do their job, our officers and
enlisted personnel are faced with certain rules that tell them
the opposite. Moreover, we have transgender soldiers, sailors,
airmen, and Marines - real, patriotic Americans - who I know are
being hurt by an outdated, confusing, inconsistent approach
that's contrary to our value of service and individual
merit." -- Ash Carter, United States Secretary of Defense,
2015-07-13